For the most part, the German market has adapted to the modest price level, which is especially making it more difficult to recycle coloured and dirty film waste. The majority of market participants have now accepted the fact that prices for commercial scrap film are weak, the latest EUWID market report for Germany found.
There are no signs that China will reverse its restrictive import policies even though warehouses at the country’s recycling plants are emptying out. Although plastic waste is being exported from Germany to Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, this is nowhere near enough to make up the volumes previously traded with China, market sources report.
It is a growing problem for export merchants that the lower grades of film are practically unsellable and now supplies of the standard grade 80/20 commercial mixed film are shrinking due to the poor prices. This appears to be a “death sentence” for 80/20, EUWID was told. “It is impossible to sell anything less than 90/10”, commented one trader. Because they are not paid positive prices anymore, companies where this grade arises often no longer bother to source-separate it. A lot of material is now going straight into large containers for collecting “waste for incineration”.
The full report on the waste plastics market in Germany including the price table appears in issue 5/2018 of EUWID Recycling and Waste Management on 7 March 2018. Online subscribers can already already access it here:
Waste plastics Germany
